Thieves stole $1.7 billion in cryptocurrency in 2018 as mining gives way to stealing in crypto space

4 months ago

3 Min Read

Bitcoin’s
legendary ascension to the $20,000 mark a little more than a year ago inspired
legions of fast-buck makers to hop on the bandwagon and invest in this
intriguing yet volatile asset.

Mining
cryptocurrency worked for a while, but it is no longer feasible because of the
increasing complexity behind the algorithms, especially in the case of Bitcoin.
So players in the cryptocurrency market are now (loosely) divided into two categories:
those who trade it and those who steal it.

And
the line between the ICOs and exchanges in the former group and the thieves,
scammers and hackers of the second group is blurring by the day. Some exchanges
and initial coin offerings are now entirely set up to perform an exit scam.

Playing with digital currency today is like playing with fire, as the risks now outweigh the benefits. New research reveals that thieves and scammers stole $1.7 billion in cryptocurrency in 2018. Theft from cryptocurrency exchanges accounted for most of the criminal activity: more than $950 million was stolen by hackers in 2018 – 3.6 times more than in 2017. Investors and exchange users lost at least $725 million in cryptocurrency in 2018 to exit scams, phony exchange hacks, and Ponzi schemes, according to CipherTrace.

Criminals
now need to launder all these funds to cash out before a wave of crypto-centric
regulations go into effect this year.

3.6x More Cryptocurrency Stolen in 2018 Versus 2017 According to CipherTrace (Graphic: Business Wire)

CipherTrace
has also identified the top 10 trending crypto threats (below) in an effort to
provide “actionable threat intelligence for anyone dealing with cryptocurrency.”
From the report:

SIM swapping: An identity theft technique that takes over a victim’s mobile device to steal credentials and break into wallets or exchange accounts to steal cryptocurrency.

Crypto dusting: A new form of blockchain spam that erodes the recipient’s reputation by sending cryptocurrency from known money mixers.

Sanction evasion: Nation states that use cryptocurrencies promoted by the Iranian and Venezuelan governments to circumvent sanctions.

In
the wake of numerous such incidents, countries around the world are
accelerating the adoption of anti-money-laundering regulations and
cryptocurrency forensics. However, as in the classical monetary system, some
countries are lagging behind in regulating cryptocurrency, serving as potential
havens for money laundering, fraud, and tax evasion.

About the author

Filip TRUTA

Filip is an experienced writer with over a decade of practice in the technology realm. He has covered a wide range of topics in such industries as gaming, software, hardware, and security, and has worked in various B2B and B2C marketing roles. He likes fishing (not phishing), basketball, and playing around in FL Studio.